We the Living Reading Group

Immerse yourself in one of the greatest stories ever written about the battle between the individual and the state: Ayn Rand’s We the Living.

Ayn Rand was twelve when communists seized control of her native Russia. She saw her country descend into poverty and oppression as Bolsheviks dictated every aspect of life for “the good of the proletariat.” In 1925, she was granted a travel visa to visit relatives in the United States. At her farewell party, a young man said to her, “When you get there, tell them that Russia is a huge cemetery and that we are all dying.”

With her first novel, We the Living, Rand did just that. Its plot is fictional, telling the story of a fierce love triangle between three young Russians whose lives are turned upside down by the inhumanity of collectivism. But its background is real, taken straight from Rand’s life under a crushing dictatorship. The result is a masterpiece of literary tragedy.

Come experience Rand’s novel with other active-minded participants—and an expert in Rand’s work to guide you: philosophy professor and fiction writer Dr. Andrew Bernstein. Together, you will:

1. Analyze the major characters and discuss their ideas and actions.
2. See how the main conflict, the love triangle, conveys Rand’s theme of individualism versus collectivism.
3. Study the secondary characters, ranging from innocent victims of communism to its most evil perpetrators.
4. Compare the novel with the film adaptation and discuss them with Duncan Scott, who edited the film alongside Ayn Rand and recently remastered it.

Whether you’ve read We the Living a dozen times or not at all, join us and gain or deepen your appreciation of Rand’s most autobiographical yet often overlooked novel.